Just wanted to share with you a ketchup commercial I made a few months ago that just recently became a semi-finalist in the Heinz Top this TV challenge. It was picked from 2500 other entries and was shot on a HVX200, composited in combustion, additional painting in Photoshop, and editted on an Avid. Anyways, check it out at http://topthistv.com/vote.aspx . The title is "Searching for Heinz Ketchup in NYC" by helmethair. Feel free to vote for it ... in fact, feel free to vote for it once a day from now until April 21st and tell all your friends about it.

I was thinking I would talk a little more about the making of the spot. It was shot on Saturday afternoon in midtown Manhattan with the NYPD constantly following us. Besides the cast, there was only one crew member (me holding the camera). As soon as we wrapped that morning, I went back to the studio and immediately worked on the music for the spot which was completed in about 6 hours. It was edited in Avid Media Composer that evening, and was sad so much had to be cut down. The next morning, the shots that needed VFX work, clean up, tracking, and CG were identified. Also went out and got additional b-roll work in the afternoon. Spent the rest of the day modeling, animating, cleaning up shots (track and painting out signage for legal reasons), and Maya batch rendering. Had additional CG modeling and animation help with the mini-ketchup bottles. Composited, rotoscoped, and tracked in Combustion. Fairly low-end color grading was done in Avid. Uploaded to youtube a short while later.

All in all, the spot was completed in roughly 48 hours. Thanks again for checking it out and remember keep to voting each day for it!

You know what i could achieve in 48 hrs ? 1 breakfast, 2 lunches and maybe, if i tried hard enough nice dinner. Im special that way. =[

Midnight Snack was disqualified ?
i did a quick search on the net and went to this youtube page...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcbKL8b-u4
scrolled down to read the comments, and one of the comments said that
they were in an apparent breach of rules and regulations ?

the net is a tricky place, dont know how reliable that post was...
so ..................................

in any case, it doesnt matter. with them gone, the flying Hertz bottle stands a higher chance of winning eh ? eh ?

That disqual comment was made 8 months ago, but the video is still on the main list. Thats odd.

There was a pile of corporate logos in the convenience store window.

Also when he pulls up at the burger joint the are some illuminated menu panels. No logos on those but I doubt they were custom made. So maybe its possible to figure out who it belongs to?

The bag was custom made and looked nice.

--------------------
Wow, Youtube is forcing me to get the latest Flashplayer even though I was just watching a few yesterday. They just decided I cant watch them anymore... just because. It wont play anything until I update.

In addition to the two everyone liked, I actually liked "Now we can eat" as well. It's a situation we can all relate to. I do that scanning for ketchup look when I sit down at a restaurant, so it made me smile.

Hey I just wanted to tell you all thanks and I'm glad you guys liked the video. This spot was the sort of thing where the concept for me was more important than the visuals. Given the time we had to make it, I decided that style should look more documentary but then have this eerie quality to it. I've been watching Children of Men and 28 days later a lot and that sort of inspired the idea for this. Once again, thanks you guys! and remember to vote once a day!